Electronically Obsessed A tech addict's guide to using the Internet to streamline your life

Yet another possible Facebook misstep: Contact syncing

Facebook iPhone App (version 3.1.2) presents some troubling privacy concerns regarding your Facebook profiles (iStockphoto)

Recently, Facebook pushed a new update (version 3.1.2) for their Facebook iPhone app.  While I personally have been unable to install that update for some reason, The Wife told me that this version attempts to sync Facebook profile pictures with the contacts in your iPhone address book.  Apparently, she updated her iPhone 3GS today with version 3.1.2 and was asked if she wanted to sync her contacts with Facebook.  She wisely said no.

In order to sync the pictures, the app appears to send the contents of your address book to Facebook, matches your address book contents with the Facebook database, and sends pictures matching the address book contents back to your address book.

As of this writing, I have been unable to install 3.1.2 on my iPhone 3G in order to confirm this.  However, please be wary.

If this sounds confusing, here's a post from The iPhone blog (also sent to me from The Wife - Thanks, babe!) that details the possible embarrassing consequences (not to mention the privacy concerns) of this contact syncing.

Beware of your profile pics, or your boss might get one of you doing something you don’t want them to see! What happens is, [Facebook 3.1] takes [all] the emails and phone numbers on your iPhone and sends them to Facebook. It then cross-checks and syncs them back to your iPhone. That’s a major security flaw right there! It should only sync the ones you’re friends with.

So for an example I have my coworker’s email and cell but I am not her Facebook friend. All of a sudden when I got a call from my coworker I saw a picture of her in a bikini because that was her [Facebook] profile pic!

I’m using Outlook 2010 and it has a new feature called Suggested Contacts where it keeps all your emails you been using. Those sync to my iPhone via exchange 2007. So now I have Facebook profile pics in Outlook 2010 for a bunch of folks that I don’t even really know just because I have emailed them.

As of this writing, I am unable to install version 3.1.2 of the Facebook application on my iPhone 3G.  I will continue to try to update my phone and will post more concrete news regarding this Facebook application.

Action Item

1. If the Facebook app asks to sync your contacts with Facebook, say no!
2. Tell me about your experience with the iPhone Facebook app.  Does all this make you want to quit Facebook altogether?  Comment in the comments section of this post or send me an e-mail!

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